Memes

Shitty patriot country music has always been a thing and there are still tons of Outlaw country artists right now. This is literally just like those "rap in the 90s vs rap today" memes that ignore the fact that trap has been a thing since the 90s and old school hip hop is having a Renaissance right now

it's bro country now

What do they drink now? Since their precious Bud Light gave way to WOKENESS.

There's lots of good old fashioned country out there. You just gotta leave the mainstream behind. You'll find men in touch with their emotions. You'll find women who won't settle down. You'll find fine American classics. You'll find new classics waiting to be known. And Mckain Lakey!

The country music community may be problematic, but country music itself is wonderful. And many country musicians are fantastic, unexpected people. If you want country like it used to be, dive into Melissa Carper's catalogue. She's the master of the brand new old time song.

Every song by Johnny is a banger.

I know this is obvious, but Cash's beliefs are endlessly fascinating. The same man who recorded "Ragged Old Flag" also wrote "Man in Black" and covered "Out Among the Stars." The latter is a song about a kid who commits suicide by cop because he doesn't feel like his life matters.

Heard a lot of this growing up like Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, but also Canadians like Lightfoot and Stan Rogers. Lately I've enjoyed some of the IWWs compilations of workers' songs, Utah Philips etc. Phil Ochs is up there too.

My mother's from an assimilated Mennonite background and it was one of the non-Christian genres that was permissible to her parents, because of the pacifist and civil rights sentiments in a lot of that music at the time. Also it lacked the sex and drugs themes which rock had. "I Aint Marching Anymore" and "Where have all the flowers gone?" I remember hearing quite often.

At least with propaganda it's the ruling class messaging the citizenry. In this case, at least for the most part seems self-inflicted and without purpose. People just gravitate to whatever fits their identity.

That’s all modern country music is. It’s the music of boring middle class white people who feel uneasy if their specific cultural touchstones aren’t constantly reinforced. There have to be trucks, land ownership, high school football, generic American jingoism, glorification of alcoholism.

Well written.

I believe that mainstream country turned to shit in the 80s, not sure why. My theory is that it's down to the money men in Nashville turning out an increasingly phony product for commercial reasons, but I don't actually know enough about that aspect of the business to have an informed opinion.

Fortunately there's always been legit musicians turning out excellent alt-country or Americana, or whatever we want to call it. Also a lot of the older country musicians never completely sold out either.

9 to 5 is also a socialist anthem!

It shocked me the first time I met a real anti-Semite, in real life, in Tennessee. I've worked in a lot of places all over the world and I've seen plenty of racism. No one else topped that guy in Tennessee. Other places racism was mostly contained to 'they stay over there and we stay over here.' Tons of problems but living together but apart was possible. That doesn't speak to every experience obviously. That old guy in Tennessee wanted another Holocaust, plain and simple. Anywhere else he'd get the shit kicked out of him, there it was tolerated.

That's a scarecrow!

Product placement go brrrr

I grab me a Bud,
Get in my Ford truck,
Cuz I'm un-American boah

I await my royalties.

And listened to by the same people who complain about rap music doing the same thing (in their eyes, anyway).

"You just have to look for it" reinforces the OP and his point

I'd argue that Ring of Fire is a metaphor about forbidden love that you know is damning you but the feelings are too powerful to resist.

Rather than a harmless metaphor, I find it an incredibly powerful metaphor about the pain and suffering caused by helplessly loving the "wrong" person.

Plus, there's an opportunity to make STD jokes.

You clearly weren't there when the mountain broke its back